u/Amin0

Faker's Aurora has a rightful reputation of being not up to par to his standards.

Yet, I wouldn't attribute the loss of the game to "faker's aurora = lose". Sure he didn't have any iconic game saving team fighting plays like he's known for on Azir, Orianna, or Taliyah. But he was so far behind because of the early game that he had barely any kill pressure as a burst mage.

https://www.youtube.com/live/oBICGra4Y2s?&t=17955

(time stamp is 4hr59m15s if it doesn't auto skip to that point)

We can see here that both Faker and Zeka have matched TP's and are even in farm. Faker has a slight advantage of exp and has more "combat" stats through being a boot purchase above Zeka.

20 seconds later the Oner incident in river happens. Faker is lucky that Zeka didn't secure the kill and get double buffs and also lucky to have survived with a sliver of hp. (Although faker did have flash so there wasn't a lot of danger of him dying despite the low hp)

Overall, no misplay by Faker other than not mind controlling Oner better. Zeka ends up buying a tome and dark seal through that exchange.

https://www.youtube.com/live/oBICGra4Y2s?&t=18167

2 minutes later, faker has recovered to be pretty much even with Zeka. He has the priority to roam towards dragon and trades ults with Kanavi. I don't know how hard it is to buffer Aurora ult with Vi ult, but it's not a bad trade overall.

Judgement: no misplay

7 minutes into the game, Oner has ult and both mid and bot of HLE are pushing and under a threat of Pantheon ult. 💀 do not look at what happens at 7:14 in game time. This allows Zeka to have unlimited freedom to push in. To be fair, if Pantheon was to ult mid it would be questionable as well. Trading Pantheon ult for Ahri ult isn't an equal trade, but at least it would be better than what happened bot.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2761359869?t=5h3m4s

8:40 in game time, faker gets chunked by Zeka because two charms landed so he has to go back. This allows Zeka to help dive top 4v3 without faker being able to match with Faker's teleport down. This is probably the most clear misplay we've had so far. It could be attributed to piloting error because Aurora can dash out of Ahri's Charm. But honestly, faker's laning has been terrible for his standards this entire split. I don't think it's definitively a champion error, so much as it is a general skill issue. Level 1 aurora hop is a 22 second CD, it is arguably worth it to tank a charm + q from ahri, as long as you can live and back safely. Hold the hop for when under threat of death.

Judgement: slight misplay for not dodging skill shots better. More of a misplay on not managing health better when TPing mid.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2761359869?t=5h6m17s

At 11:20 in game time is where the real pain starts. In hindsight Faker should have ulted preemptively, but having to Ult as soon as you see the jungler walk up to you, without using any abilities or summoner spells, is just so despair. Dragon is live, so losing ult without the enemy champions committing any cooldowns means 100% giving up second dragon.

Judgement: no misplay arguably slight misplay, just play safe xD.

This game is so over after this. 3.5k down at 12 minutes and down 2 dragons. Faker's first death, but before this the Vi and Ahri are way ahead in tempo and items. Faker also isn't playing Galio or Anivia, he can't depend on being tanky enough until Oner can reactively ult mid. Even if he was more tanky, Delight was already in mid to back them up while Keria was late to match.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2761359869?t=5h8m7s

Take a look at this ward in the top jungle, it is important later on. at 13:25 in game, Pantheon is pinged by HLE on that ward. HLE knows that Pantheon has no bot pressure. Guma wards bottom tribush with a pink just 3 seconds earlier and laneswaps with ahri. Faker catches bot wave and then checks tribush. Ahri is 3/0/1 with 6 stacks on dark seal and a completed item. You can argue where was faker's ult? Well, he had to use it 20 seconds earlier to survive a Vi gank. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2761359869?t=5h7m50s

Judgement: no misplay arguable slight misplay for blind face check with no vision of Ahri on the map.

TLDR: was it a great game from Faker? No. It wasn't even a good game. But he didn't have a bad game from piloting Aurora. This is the nature of burst mages and assassins. If you're not ahead then you're useless. This is why it's so important for T1 to draft scaling control/roaming champions mid for Faker. His laning hasn't been up to par this split, I'd firmly put him closer to 5th best than being in contention for top 3 mid this split. Chovy, BDD, and Zeka very obviously are much better than Faker this split.